The Shabu Shabu experience doesn’t cause me to go bonkers until the next time I can have it again, but I can see why people like this a lot. A Mongolian-influenced Japanese meat and veggie fondue that rubbed off on Korea. I also remember having this in Sincheng, a small town in Taiwan, just east of Taroko Gorge. Taiwan, like Korea, is another country that Japan left behind a lot of their culture to later be absorbed into their mainstream cuisine (Don’t even get me started on how kickass the Japanese-style onsens are in the hills overlooking Taipei).
Anyways, the Shabu Shabu experience beats the hell out of repeatedly eating bulgogi, which is the point of this series.
Sacheon Jjajangmyeon is essentially noodles in spicy szechuan sauce. Actually, any time you see Korean food being labelled as 사천, that will be the indicator that it is szechuan. But of course, you would only expect to find this among Koreanized Chinese food.
In the quest to uncover and promote Korean dishes that are western-friendly and that step fully away from expats’ well-versed mantras of ‘bulgogi juseyo’, ‘galbi juseyo’, ‘samgyupsal juseyo’, and occasionally ‘bibimbap juseyo’, we feel that something needs to be done to break down the comfort barriers preventing the discovery of some really great gems in Korean cuisine.
For example, take Dakdoritang. A much less expensive sister to Jjimdak, you can find 닭도리탕 (pron. ‘dahk-doh-li-tahng’) a lot more abundantly than her Jjim eonni or even her cousin samgyetang. This hot little number carries the right kind of spicy chicken to potato ratio, to make the menu decision math simple for all Korean food newbs or aficionados. And is great for ordering on your own at a random bunshik jib to eating with friends while downing soju at Korean bars.
